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Getting started: your first client in 15 minutes

⏱ 15 minUpdated 2026-10-22

Add a client, find out what to fix, plan the month and send a polished report. This guide walks through the whole RankRight loop once, so every month after that feels routine.

Sign in to follow along → How to get access
  • No code needed
  • Nothing goes live without you
  • Reports in Word & PDF

How a month works

Every client runs through the same four-step cycle each month. You'll see it on the left of the client's SEO page.

The monthly RankRight cycle Step one, run What's Next to generate action items. Step two, approve tasks by planning them for the month. Step three, verify tasks are completed. Step four, generate the report, which closes the cycle and starts the next month. STEP 1 Run What's Next STEP 2 Approve tasks STEP 3 Verify completed STEP 4 Report & resolve next month starts again
Set up once (steps 1–3 below), then repeat the cycle every month.

Your first client, step by step

Allow about 15 minutes. Most of it is RankRight working in the background while you read.

1 Sign in and subscribe ~2 min

Sign in with your RankRight account, or accept the invite your workspace owner emailed you.

On a brand-new workspace, the owner subscribes first on the Billing page. Until then you can look around, but changes are blocked.

Joining an existing team? Skip ahead. Your owner has already handled billing, and your role decides what you can change.

2 Add a client or run an audit ~2 min

Already working with them? Go to Clients → New client. Enter the Client name and Website URL, then click Create client. The other fields can wait.

Pitching a prospect? Go to Clients → Audits and fill in New prospect audit: business name and website, then Start audit. It runs for a minute or two and builds a white-label SEO Opportunity Assessment you can send them.

An active client takes a billable seat, and its onboarding fee is charged when you click Create client. Audits don't take a seat.

3 Scan the site and connect it ~5 min

On the client's Overview, click Scan site now. RankRight crawls the site and fills in its pages, platform, services and locations, keywords and existing blog posts. It takes a few minutes, and the page updates when it's done.

While it runs, open the client's Credentials tab and connect:

You can skip the website connection, but then every action item becomes a manual task.

4 Run What's Next ~1 min

Click SEO — What's Next at the top of the client page, then Run "What's Next".

In about a minute, RankRight's SEO strategist reviews the site and gives you a prioritized list of action items: missing meta descriptions, heading problems, schema to add, content gaps and more. Each one has a priority, a tier, the page it applies to and an estimated time.

New items land in the backlog. Nothing has been changed on the site yet.

5 Plan the month and do the work ~3 min

Tick the items you'll tackle this month under Pending Action Items, then click Plan for month. They're now committed to this cycle.

Then get them done:

  • Tier A: open Fulfillment run, choose the month, set a budget cap, pick the items and run it. RankRight pushes each change and marks it done only after checking the live page.
  • Tiers B and C: your team makes these changes, then marks them done.

Ticking the box at the top of the list selects every open item at once. Handy on your first month.

6 Generate the report ~1 min

Once some tasks are done, step 4 of the cycle lights up. Click Generate report. RankRight writes a client-facing recap of the month's finished work, and that closes the cycle.

Open it with View report, or go to Reports in the top menu. The monthly deliverables there let you download every client's report as Word or PDF in one zip.

Want your logo on it? See white-label branding and client reports.

What tiers A, B and C mean

Every action item has a tier. It tells you who does the work.

Automated

Tier A

RankRight pushes the change to the live site and checks it: meta tags, headings and schema. Needs a website connection.

Semi-automated

Tier B

Partly automated. RankRight does some of the work, and a person on your team finishes it.

Manual

Tier C

A task for your team, such as new content or design changes. Sites without a connection get only tier-C items.

Questions

Quick answers to what new teams ask most.

Do I have to connect the client's website?
No, but it's worth it. Without a WordPress REST key or FTP connection, nothing can be pushed to the site, so every action item becomes a manual task for your team. With a connection, RankRight can push and verify tier-A fixes for you.
What's the difference between a client and an audit?
A client is a site you're actively working on: it gets a monthly cycle of action items and reports. An audit is for a prospect: it scans their site and builds a client-facing SEO Opportunity Assessment without creating a work backlog. You can turn the prospect into a client later.
Does adding a client cost anything?
An active client takes a billable seat, and the seat's onboarding fee is charged when you create it. If the payment fails, the client isn't created. Prospect audits are saved as inactive records and don't take a seat. Your current seats and charges are on the Billing page.
Will RankRight change a client's site without asking?
No. Action items start in the backlog. Nothing is pushed until you plan items for a month and run a Fulfillment run, and only tier-A items (meta, heading and schema changes) are pushed automatically. Each one is counted as done only after the live page is checked.
What happens if I run What's Next again?
It checks the site again and adds anything new. Items you already have aren't duplicated, so it's safe to rerun after you've made changes.
Can everyone on my team do this?
Owners, SEO editors and web builders can add clients, run What's Next and plan work. Viewers can see everything but can't make changes. Only owners can manage billing and the team.
Where do I find finished reports?
Open the client's SEO tab and use View report next to the cycle, or go to Reports in the top menu. The monthly deliverables there bundle every client's report as Word or PDF files in one download.

Keep going

Guides that pair well with this one.

10 min

Connect a client's WordPress site

Install the RankRight Site Manager plugin, connect it with a key, and choose REST or FTP pushes so RankRight can publish fixes and blog posts for you.

Read the guide → 5 min

Connect Google Search Console & Analytics

Grant RankRight read access to Search Console and Google Analytics 4, link the right property to each client, and fix "no properties found".

Read the guide → 5 min

White-label branding and client reports

Put your agency name on the reports clients see, then generate, download and share monthly deliverables as Word or PDF, one client or all at once.

Read the guide →
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